Abstract
This paper presents new attitude error differential equations to define attitude errors as the rotation vector for inertial navigation systems. Attitude errors are defined with the rotation vector between the reference coordinate frame and the platform coordinate frame, and Platform dynamics to the reference coordinate frame due to platform torque command errors are defined. Using these concepts for attitude error definition and platform dynamics, we have derived attitude error differential equations expressed in original nonlinear form for GINS and SDINS and showed that these are equivalent to attitude error differential equations expressed in known linear form. The relation between attitude errors defined by the rotation vector and attitude errors defined by quaternion is clearly presented as well.